Edible cones and apparatus and methods for making them have long been known in the prior art, some of the earlier patents being U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,274,506 and 1,417,757. Such cones usually have a closed pointed or somewhat rounded vertex portion and a body of right cylindrical cone shape, which is to say a shape described by a moving straight line passing through a fixed vertex point and tracing a circle. Most conventional cones are of pastry, brittle and wafer-like, and often are intended to hold cold edible contents such as ice cream. Some, such as that taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,417,057, have a mouth rim which is thicker than the remainder of the cone wall.
Cones or other edible containers specially adapted to hold hot edible contents are also known, as taught for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,313,964 and 3,290,154. The latter is also of interest because it calls for a container wall which is crusted on its inside and outside surfaces with a soft large-cell non-crusted interior between.
No known edible cones of the prior art are formed in other than right cylindrical conical shapes or cup shapes. Conventional cones and other edible containers also are believed not to include any form of double-thickness wall similar to that of pita-bread. Neither do known designs of cones include a mouth rim which is other than planar, which is to say a rim which is equidistant at all points from the vertex or base of the cone.
Conventional right circular or cup shaped cones with circular planar rims have certain disadvantages. At least at the beginning of consumption they cannot readily be bitten in a single moderate mouthful across their full width to include portions of opposite cone walls and edible contents, which is one of the satisfying characteristics of a sandwich. Also such cones must be held upright and should not be laid on their sides, which is a marked shortcoming if reheating in a microwave or conventional oven is necessary. Neither do prior art cones include any integral wall means for covering the contents within, which would allow the contents to be held in place if the cone were disposed other than upright and also would achieve sealing, permitting storage of prefilled cones prior to consumption.
Apparatus and methods for making prior art cones include the use of matching female and male molds of a shape conforming to that of the finished product. It is common to heat such molds to cook the material of which the cones are made and also to provide a plurality of cojoined molds operating together, all of which is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 1,274,506. However, prior art cone-making apparatus and methods are not known to include two-stage processes where the cone is first pre-formed by a male forming mold and then finished with a second male cooking mold. As a consequence the wall construction of a cone made by conventional single-step apparatus and methods is typically of uniform and monolithic cross-section from its inside to outside surfaces or perhaps somewhat more crusted on the inside and outside surfaces with a softer cell wall between. It has been beyond the capability of prior art cone-making apparatus and methods to achieve a double-thickness wall defining air spaces therebetween with the characteristics of pita-bread.